Championship Update
Hoopheads:
A great night for the UConn Huskies and Gus the Bus, as the Huskies go back-to-back and Gus the Bus wins “Jabin’s March Madness Charity Pool.”
Gus picked a perfect Final Four and finished with 83 points. He had both Purdue and UConn winning the semifinal games, and of course UConn winning the title. Wow! That’s a total of 16 points in the Final Four (5 points each for the semis, and 6 for the championship game), allowing him to leapfrog Final Four-leaders Aunt Holly and The Reverend, who each had Purdue winning the final. I always say that the last few rounds are so important, but both Roy Kent and Laughing Jay finished 1 back at 82 points, and Oma Barbara finished with 81. Aunt Holly and The Reverend finished with 78 points each. Just one or two games in the first round made the difference, so they all count! Head to the site for final standings of “Jabin’s March Madness Charity Pool.”
Like they have all tournament, the Huskies led pretty much the whole game, and every time Purdue tried to make a run, UConn had an answer. First team to go back-to-back as national champions since Florida did it in 2006 and 2007. And I’ve tried hard to think about a time when I thought they were in trouble in this tournament, and I’ve come up empty. Pretty impressive run.
Practice makes perfect
Our winner isn’t some Johnny Come Lately to this pool. Oh no, he’s been at it for years, although he is still a young man. Courtesy of his mother, this is an adorable video of our winner and his older brother filling out their charity pool bracket a few years ago. I guess what they say about Carnegie Hall is also true about March Madness bracketology – practice, practice, practice. Reminds me of my favorite Dmitri Martin joke. “I wish I lived next to Carnegie Hall. Then, if someone asked me how to get to my house, I would just say ‘Practice, practice, practice, then take a left.’”
Maybe the committee knows what it’s doing?
So after all the upsets, surprises, and crazy March Madness endings, we had two No. 1 seeds battling it out for the championship. I don’t know how anyone could disagree that these were the two best teams in the tournament, but that’s not how it always plays out. In fact, it’s usually not. But this year’s tournament had its share of great upstarts – remember Oakland? Yale repped the Ivy League with a first-round upset for the conference two years in a row, and 11 seed NC State got hot when it counted most and made the Final Four. Good stuff.
UVa keeps its record
Purdue almost matched an achievement (debatable) that has only been accomplished by one school, the University of Virginia. What’s that, you say? UVa was the first No. 1 seed to get upset by a 16 seed, and then win the championship the next year (UVa lost to Maryland-Baltimore County in a 1-16 matchup in 2018, then won the dance in 2019). Just five years later, the Boilermakers, who lost to 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson last year in the first round, came just one win short. The Cavs’ record is safe. 😊
Gunga galunga
A friend pointed out to me today (per an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal), that one of UConn’s assistant coaches is none other than Luke Murray, son of Bill Murray (of many of my favorite movies). Luke Murray actually designed UConn’s offense, so I guess he knows as much about basketball as his dad does about making really funny movies. Pretty cool. What are the odds that both father and son would choose careers that involve Stripes? (refs, get it?). Sorry about that one.
OK, that’s it for the Madness. I’ll be back to you when Gus the Bus picks his charity. Thank you to everyone for your contributions thus far, and thanks for listening to my March Madness screeds.
Yours in Madness,
Jabin